ERC Synergy grant ReNewQuantum

Phd 2019-2022 in Mathematical Physics

Geometry of integrable systems, topological recursion,

quantum curves and asymptotic expansion

Principal investigator : B. Eynard, IPHT CEA Saclay, CNRS UMR 3681.

Duration : 3 years, sept 2019 – sept 2022.

Location : Institut de Physique Théorique, IPHT CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France
https://www.ipht.fr/en/index.php

Topic:

This is a very interdisciplinary topic in mathematical physics, at the interface between

Mathematics and Physics.
Key words : integrable systems, algebraic and enumerative geometry, combinatorics, topological
recursion, resurgence theory, random matrices, string theory, statistical physics, maps.

An integrable system was initially defined as a dynamical system with enough conserved quantities
to make it « solvable ». It was rephrased as a set of Poisson-commuting Hamiltonians, and as the
existence of a « Tau-function » whose differential is generated by the commuting Hamiltonians. In
physics, the Tau function is the partition function. The Tau function is characterized by some
relations satisfied by its differential, and in particular a nonlinear equation called « Hirota
equation ».
It was observed long ago, that generating functions for several problems in combinatorics or in
enumerative geometry, are tau-functions of some integrable systems, for example the Kontsevich
integral (generating function for the Kontsevich-Witten intersection numbers in the enumerative
geometry of the moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces), is the Korteweg-DeVries (KdV) Tau-function.
More generally, string theory can be rephrased as an enumerative geometry problem : « in how
many ways can a Riemann surface of given genus, be holomorphically embedded in a given target
space », i.e. measure the volume of a moduli space of pairs of (Riemann surface, holomorphic
embedding). Those volumes are extremely hard to compute, and making the link to an integrable
system, gives differential equations and other equations, that can provide a way to compute them.
Another link to geometry, is that many examples of Tau-functions happen to be the Theta-function
of some algebraic curve, and in some sense, to each algebraic plane curve one can associate a Tau-
function. In fact, almost every Tau function, in a certain limit (with a small parameter ε→ 0)
behaves as a Theta function asymptotically, and one can study its asymptotic expansion in powers
of ε (semi-classical limit, similar to WKB), and find that coefficients of powers of ε, have a
geometric interpretation in the geometry of the algebraic plane curve. Vice versa, given an algebraic
plane curve, one can construct, from its geometry, a « formal » Tau function as a power series in
power of ε.
However a difficulty is that the asymptotic series is usually a divergent series, it doesn’t define a
function of ε. In other words, we need to understand the resummation procedure. This is related to
the « resurgence theory ».

The student will get acquainted to all these concepts. He/she will study several examples of
enumerative geometry problems coming either from physics (string theory, statistical physics) or
mathematics (algebraic geometry, combinatorics, random matrices). He/she will study the recursion
equations that relate the coefficients of the asymptotic series (topological recursion), and work on
the question of resummation and resurgence.

Application : send a cv.

Deadline for submission : 30 feb 2019. Next selection: march 2019